San Sebastián projects a controversial film about pedophilia that Toronto canceled

The cinema of the Austrian Ulrich Seidl (Vienna, 69 years old) has always been murky, loving to show the most poisonous faces of the Europe of well-being.

Thanks to this, he is a regular at film festivals and in Spain, where all of his films have been released commercially, he has a loyal group of followers.

For this reason, the presentation to the competition in San Sebastián de

his latest work, became an event.

The film, which forms a diptych with

was shot in 2019 and premiered at the last Berlinale.

But on September 2, the German weekly

published a report that assures that Seidl deliberately concealed from the parents and the minors who worked with him - non-professional actors who at the time of filming were between 9 and 16 years old - that the film was about pedophilia.

According to the investigation of the German media, he did not prepare them adequately to face a film in which they were going to see violence and alcoholism.

The Toronto festival canceled the screening of the film this month, and the Hamburg festival decided to keep its sessions, but has withdrawn the award of an honorary award to Seidl.

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In San Sebastián, the director of the contest, José Luis Rebordinos, tells EL PAÍS that they have not had any doubts: “Here we believe in the presumption of innocence.

We have read that report carefully, we have confirmed that there is not a single complaint in court in either Austria or Romania, and the entire Zinemaldia selection team has seen the film to compare what was shown.

Only a court order establishing it would lead us to suspend a scheduled screening.”

This Saturday Seidl canceled his trip to San Sebastián and sent a statement: “I am very grateful to José Luis Rebordinos for supporting

from the beginning, despite the media pressure and the sudden and unexpected controversy it has caused.

It means a lot to me.

My initial impulse was to go to San Sebastian and not leave alone the film that my team and I have worked on for so many years.

However, I have come to realize that my presence at the

could cast a shadow over the film's reception.

Now it's time for the film to speak for itself."

The director of the contest points out: “It is a sad moment.

We wanted Seidl to come and defend his work."

This Sunday there have been no interviews, no press conference, nor will any member of the team accompany

in her gala session at 7:00 p.m.

In Spain Filmin will distribute the film in theaters and in

Despite Seidl's words, the controversy is not unexpected.

Beyond the

medium that assures that its journalists have investigated on the ground for half a year and that they have interviewed not only the children and their guardians, but also members of the Romanian film crew, the first complaints come from before.

Already before the pandemic, various Romanian media echoed the complaints of the parents, who ultimately did not file any legal complaint.

The Romanian local authorities of Satu Mare and the DIICOT agency that reports to the public prosecutor have opened an investigation, as well as the minor protection agency.

Romanian Culture Minister Lucian Romaşcanu told the media: “This is a serious matter.

If you let your child act in a movie, you obviously have to see the script, sign a contract and have all the information necessary to make a decision.”

Ulrich Seidl at the press conference for the Berlin Film Festival in February 2022 during the presentation of 'Rimini'.

Vianney Le Caer (Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP)

Seidl's lawyer denies the facts in

: “They were informed that the film was about an adult who is attracted to boys and takes on a certain role as a father figure to them.”

The shoot ran from the winter of 2019 to the summer of 2020. In a later statement, Seidl elaborated: “If parents had objections about the shoot or how we treated their children, or if the children felt uncomfortable with us, they would not have continued collaborating for so long.

Needless to say, I never forced any child (or any of the actors) to do anything on camera that they didn't want to.

The younger actors were under constant supervision.

Next to the set we built rooms where they could rest or play, just as we had done in other of my films.

When they weren't filming, they could spend time there,

Der Spiegel

alleges that they did not abide by the labor regulations for filming with minors, that is, with psychologists on the set who gave support to children.

“Unlike what the weekly mentions, I also explained to the parents, one by one (with the help of interpreters), all the essential elements of the film before shooting.

Including the ambiguity of the character of Ewald, the protagonist, and his relationship with the children.

The journalists from

did not ask us for any copies of the script that Veronika Franz and I wrote – which evolved during filming in collaboration with the actors – and which served as a starting point for the conversation.

The journalists did not even ask to see the film.”

There have been no statements from the leading actor, Georg Friedrich, with a very long career and present in titles such as

and who rejected an offer from Tarantino to work on

meticulously measured

On screen,

is meticulously measured.

At no time is it shown that the protagonist's pedophile desires lead to pederasty.

No child appears naked, although they do in underpants.

Seidl, a master of manipulation and of the dark, points out a reflection: the Austrian judo master with pedophile tendencies is a better father than the real ones, drunk and unconcerned about minors in a Transylvania of abandoned schools and prevailing poverty.

The teacher takes photos of them in kimono, or pants asking them to "show him muscle."

He then sees the images in his room, although at no time is his viewing associated with sexual acts.

There is only one sequence in which Seidl goes far: in the huge community shower, the children bathe in their underpants with the teacher doing the same, albeit naked, next to him.

He also does not ensure that there is a sexual intention.

Ewald, the protagonist, is a man tormented by the consciousness of that desire, and a loving son who constantly travels from his home in Transylvania to the Austrian nursing home where Vater, his father, is sinking into a dementia that takes out light his past as a Nazi teenager.

In his previous film,

Ewald and Vater were secondary characters in a drama centered on Richi, Ewald's older brother, a singer who decades ago experienced success in the German-speaking world and who now lives poorly acting in the Italian town that gives his name. to the film in seedy hotels and nightclubs anchored in the sixties.

His meager emoluments are made better by what fans pay him to sleep with him.

Seidl has moved between documentary and fiction in his films.

Of the first format, in which he began his career, stand out

(2014), which investigates the dark secrets hidden in those usual rooms in Austrian houses, or

(2016), about the cruel hunting trips of rich Austrians to Africa. .

In fiction, his powerful trilogy

and

(2013) and

(2007) poses questions to the viewer in a cold and aggressive manner on topics such as sex tourism or the treatment Western Europe gives to women. immigration.